Wooden Crate Shelving

Our master bathroom hasn’t changed at all since the day we moved into this house – three and a half years ago. We threw up some old floating shelves, put in a shower curtain and a mat and that was seriously it. It never changed because we didn’t really think there was many options for the space. One of the short walls is our shower & tub and the other is the doorway and the start of the vanity counter. One of the long walls is a wall-length vanity & the whole wall is one giant mirror and the other long wall a two-foot length of bare wall, followed by a window and another bare-length of wall… that gets blocked by the door being open. With that layout it doesn’t leave much room in the way of decor but we spent this past weekend getting really creative and it paid off in a big way. This was the first project we took on, it also happened to be the cheapest and easiest too! We were actually out looking for untreated wood floating shelves (which was an unsuccessful hunt) when we walked past these plain wooden CD storage crates and I thought, hmmm this could be cool! By staining them and hanging them in a different way we were able to not only gain storage but decorate some of the only blank wall space in the room! Best part? The whole project cost under 10$!

Talk about a serendipitous moment… when I spotted these crates (at AC Moore) and decided they would be a cool alternative to plain floating shelves, I also spotted a sign saying they were on sale for $1.99 each! After grabbing three of them, we planned to go to Lowe’s to grab some stain when we walked past the clearance table and saw ONE container of the exact stain we wanted (Minwax Natural Stain, found HERE in the smallest can size) on sale for just $3.99! I knew then that the project was meant to be!

Start off by lightly sanding your crates (1). This just preps the surface for the stain and also since these are so inexpensive there were some rough corners. Next, stain the crates (2). We liked the color of the wood, it fit with the look we were going for in the bathroom which was an earthy nature feel so we went with a natural stain but you could go absolutely any color you want! I found it easiest to stain the insides of the crates first then work your way out. Allow the stain to dry about 15 minutes, if you’re using natural stain, if you’re using a color you’ll have to wipe off sooner depending on how saturated you want your color. Wipe off the whole crate with a paper towel to remove any excess stain (3). We weren’t putting anything crazy in our crates so we just put two screws, one in the middle of each slat along the bottom of the crate. We found it easy to pre-drill these holes (4) first. Mark the spot on your wall where you want to middle of the top of your crate to go and mark a spot in the middle on the top of your crate. Line these two marks up and make sure the crate is level (5). Use drywall screws to secure the crates to the walls (6) and stock them with anything you like!